Informal Helping Networks and Social Service Changes: A Community Perspective

Abstract

An assessment of household helping relationships in a community context, including both informal & formal relationships, based on interviews conducted with 112 household members & 58 directors of social service agencies in 3 ethnically distinct Chicago, Ill, neighborhoods. At the household level, reliance on informal help greatly exceeded reliance on formal agencies. Households were twice as likely to give help as receive it in a complex variety of ways, while agencies struggled to add new functional programs during a retrenchment period. Household Rs & agency directors disagreed in their perceptions of community needs: households cited employment & general city services, while directors emphasized human services. Efforts to tie together formal & informal helping relationships will have to respect the complexity & reciprocity of informal helping. 2 Tables, 39 References. Modified HA